Our posting schedule for The Divine Diva Tour: A Fairy’s Tale picks up again this weekend, as we return to the project I did twenty years ago, and I attempt to make sense of how two decades of time wreaks its havoc on the body and the mind. There’s a lot of wear and tear here, there and everywhere these days. Revisiting such blasts from the past is something I’m trying to embrace as I approach fifty. The universe has been whispering to slow down, and while I usually fight the universe in my infuriating way, it’s usually easier to listen and heed.

A few words of advice, then, to a selfie-obsessed youth culture that likely has no need for such words: if you’re going to be vain, be vain when you’re young.

Take all the pictures.
And take them of all your body.
Listen to the wisdom of Moira Rose.
I was way ahead of my time, taking my first selfie (a Polaroid) in 1986 (wearing a Reebok sweatshirt when it was all the brand new rage) and not stopping since.

Now, looking back to twenty years ago, I celebrate my vanity for ensuring that this word and torn physical vessel was preserved in some photographic fashion. It feels important, as every day seems to take away some form of physical living that once felt easy.

There are typos here and in my work because my eyesight is getting quickly and progressively worse (hence the need for progressive lenses that don’t seem to be doing what they’re supposed to be doing). My waist size has shifted toward the problematic and elusive 33 inches, which still seems to be a size that manufacturers don’t always make. My hair has gone from salt and pepper to predominantly salt, which is also bad for my blood pressure, even with the Lisinopril pills I’m on. And yet, somehow I’m more at peace with my body and my life than I’ve ever felt before. There are small regrets, mostly of discomfort and annoyance, but I’ve been lucky to be more or less healthy (according to my doctors). Looking back doesn’t trigger envy or the wish to return to my youth, because I value what little wisdom I’ve accumulated too much to go back to before.

Maybe I’ll freak out when I’m a little closer to 50 – but with a birthday in August how much closer can I get? In the meantime, there is the memory machine of this project, and stumbling upon a few more photos that weren’t printed out the first time around, and which I am sharing here.

~ The Divine Diva Tour: A Fairy’s Tale ~

1. Pink Frilly Fairy: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three
2. Homage to Herb: Part One, Part Two and Part Three
3. A Purple-Hued Interlude
4. Style & Panache: Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.
5. Purple Puff Confection: Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.
6. A Blue-Hued Interlude
7. Fuchsia Fabulousness: Part One. Part Two and Part Three.
8. Bad Boy Bangs: Part One, Part Two. and Part Three.
9. Vanity Under Where: Part One, Part Two. and Part Three.
10. Sugar Plum Ballerina: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
11. A Pool Frolic: Part One, Part Two. and Part Three.
12. A Cemetery Interlude: Part One and Part Two.
13. Powder Blue Fur Doll: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
14. A Milky Interlude 
15. Rock Out, Cock Out/ Hang Out, Wang Out: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
16. Cocktail Cocktale: Part One and Part Two.
17. A Fairy’s Interlude: Part One and Part Two.
18. Willy Wonkers: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
19. A Peacock In Everything But Beauty: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
20. Swan Lake Fantasia: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four.
21. Black & White in Briefs: Part One, Part Two. and Part Three.
22. Weave of Basket, Weave of Rope: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five.